Barack Obama, 2009. That was before he discovered just how inconvenient “transparency” could be, and dumped it under the proverbial bus. It seemed like a good idea, but that meant those disagreeable Republicans could find out what he was doing, and that is and was — inconvenient. No longer transparent but more like a stonewall, with carefully placed occasional small windows to view chosen elements that portray the work of the administration in a favorable light. Barack Obama morphs into Barack O’Blameless.

It said that of 441,000 absentee ballots requested by eligible voters living abroad – mainly active-duty and reserve troops – more than 98,000 were “lost” ballots that were mailed out but never received by election officials. Taking into account 13,500 ballots that were rejected for such reasons as a missing signature or failure to notarize, one-quarter of those requesting a ballot were disenfranchised.

The study found that an additional 11,000 ballots were returned as undeliverable. [more]

Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, said the study, while providing only a snapshot of voting patterns, “is enough to show that the balloting process for service members is clearly in need of an overhaul.”

By this time next year, with hard work, the Schmuckster hopes Democrats can disenfranchise at least 85% of all military ballots!

Months before his election, Mr. Obama apparently started to cultivate improved relations with the mullahs of Iran. A senior campaign adviser, former Clinton administration Defense Secretary William Perry met repeatedly with a representative of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (The Holocaust-denying, genocide supporting “gentleman”).

According to Frank Gafney Jr., president of the Center for Security Policy, Obama’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke has hired as a senior adviser Professor Vali Reza Nasr — an Iranian expatriate with a record of shilling for the Islamic Revolutionary Iranian regime.

According to GeostrategyDirect.com, a newsletter published by The Washington Times national security reporter BillGertz:

“Diplomatic sources said that Barack Obama has engaged several Arab intermediaries to relay messages to and from as Qaeda in the months before his election as the 44th U.S. President. The sources said al Qaeda has offered what they termed a truce in exchange for a U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. ‘For the last few months, Obama has been receiving and sending feelers to those close to al Qaeda on whether the group would end its terrorist campaign against the United States,’ a diplomatic source said. ‘Obama sees this as helpful to his plans to essentially withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq during his first term in office.'”

President Obama’s first post-inaugural interview was with Al Arabiya, a Saudi-owned network. He said he was determined to “restore” the “same respect and partnership America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago.”

Shades of the Dixie Chicks. Charles Krauthammer pointed out that over the past 20 years:

America did not just respect Muslims, it bled for them. … It is both false and injurious to this country to draw a historical line dividing America under Obama from a benighted past when Islam was supposedly disrespected and demonized.

It’s unclear just what President Obama hopes to accomplish with his ‘good intentions.’ Islamists are not alone in interpreting it as weakness.

The Wall Street Journal today took a look at the claim that Sarah Palin’s qualifications to be Vice President are poor because she governs one of the least populated states, with a meager budget of “only” $12 billion and 16,000 full-time state employees. But it turns out that the Governor’s office in Alaska is one of the nation’s most powerful.

For more than two decades Thad Beyle, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina, has maintained an index of “institutional powers” in state offices. He rates governorships on potential length of service, budgetary and appointment authority, veto power and other factors. Mr. Beyle’s findings for 2008 rate Alaska at 4.1 on a scale of 5. The national average is 3.5.

Only four other states — Maryland, New Jersey, New York and West Virginia — concentrate as much power in the Governor’s office as Alaska does, and only one state (Massachusetts) concentrates more. California may be the nation’s most populous state, but its Governor rates as below-average (3.2) in executive authority. This may account in part for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s poor legislative track record. The lowest rating goes to Vermont (2.5) where the Governor (remember Howard Dean) is a figurehead compared to Mrs. Palin.

The Alaskan governor has line-item veto power over the budget and can only be overridden by a three-quarters majority in the Legislature. Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, elected in 1992, had a state budget of $2 billion which was among the smallest in the country. Sarah Palin not only governs a lot of territory, but is an important executive.

Voters are curious about “community organizing”. Barack Obama has made quite a point of his earlier career in community organizing, but most people have no idea what an organizer actually organizes.
Iowa Hawk, a brilliant satirist, sums it up:

What do community organizers do? As you know, Americans today are struggling with problems. These problems include rising unemployment, energy cost, alienation, animosity, corporations and increased death. Like no other time in our history, Americans are staring into an abyss of a hellhole of helplessness. And this is where community organizers like me come in and provide solutions. Specifically, America’s community organizers:

More seriously, two articles visit Barack Obama’s community organizing from two sides of the aisle: one by John B. Judis from The New Republic, and another from National Reviewby Byron York. Read both articles for some insight into the presidential campaign. We offer links, you decide.